“Many church planters sense that if New York City senses spiritual renewal, the ripple effects can impact the world,” Mr. Bird said. “Many regret the way recent decades of church planting have over-focused on growing suburbs and under-focused on the spiritual needs of larger cities.”

“I was blown away by the need for churches,” said Mr. Wyatt, now lead pastor of Gallery Church in Manhattan.

Five years ago, the start-up congregation met in empty schoolrooms and in a Chelsea art gallery. But now, its 100 members have their own large loft, which Mr. Wyatt said was worth the sacrifice of leaving his comfortable hometown.

The Gallery Church is among 45 Southern Baptist “church plants,” or new congregations, established in the New York City area in the last decade, according to Mike Ebert, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. And the Southern Baptists — the largest Protestant denomination in the country — plan to establish 50 more churches in the New York area over the next five years.

The mission board’s Web site describes New York City as “the backdrop to some of our nation’s greatest triumphs and greatest tragedies.”

“It’s New York City,” it adds, “and it needs your help.”

The mission board plans to spend $20 million in 2012 on new churches in New York and 26 other cities.

Bruce T. Gourley, executive director of the nonprofit Baptist History and Heritage Society, said the initiative was an “attempt to survive in a post-denominational era,” after a recent decline in Southern Baptist membership.
……

More recently, the denomination has tried to rely more on native New Yorkers to spur growth in the city. The church cites Rich Perez as an example. Mr. Perez, a Dominican-American who had what he described as a “transformational” experience at age 14 in a Southern Baptist church, started his own congregation, which meets in apartments in Washington Heights.

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